


A Partial Treatise on Love

by cupidsbow



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Chocolate, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Love Confessions, Misunderstandings, Other, argument, art interpretation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-10-23 15:02:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsbow/pseuds/cupidsbow
Summary: Venom doesn't understand human emotions.Chapter 1 is rated for Teen Audiences and Up, and can be read as friendship romance.Chapter 2 is Explicit.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Airheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airheart/gifts).



Venom is amusing themself while Eddie sleeps by listening to the people in the apartment above them, and trying to figure out what bizarre human activity they are acting out. The bedsprings squeak rapidly, and they are both making grunting noises. Are they looking for vermin in their bed? Trying to eat each other? _Exercising?_ Eddie sometimes lies on the floor and does weird exertions with his arms and legs that he calls exercise, but his grunting never sounds quite like the people upstairs. Venom eyes the window. Is there’s a way up there, so that they could take a look?

Venom tentatively inches toward the side of the bed nearest the window, but Eddie rolls over and drags them close again, squeezing them up against his chest. He slurs out, “Love you,” and kisses them on the side of the head. Then he’s asleep again, snoring damply against the spot he just kissed.

The feeling that rushes through them is strange, not like anything they’ve felt before. It’s a bit like hunger in the moment right before they catch a wily prey who has led them on a long chase, their teeth itching to bite, and then again it’s a bit like waiting to be found on the asteroid, cold and empty and endlessly spinning, losing hope of ever making contact with warmth again.

Venom wants to wake Eddie up and ask questions, find out what he meant, but last time...

Eddie had mumbled, “No! The chocolate fruit aren’t ripe yet. Don’t pick ‘em,” and Venom had been so excited -- _Chocolate fruit!_ But Eddie had woken up cranky, rubbing the spot where they poked him and said he didn’t remember and it was just a dream, and humans made stuff up in dreams all the time, and for god’s sake, " _Let me sleep_."

Did Eddie dream of love and kissing like he dreamt of chocolate fruit?

On an episode of _Virtue Falls_ just last week, Mariana had been quite insistent to Kimberley that love for mates and kin was the most important thing in human life. Eddie didn’t like _Virtue Falls_ , but Venom found it fascinating. Venom likes to understand Eddie’s drives and motivations, and the show explains so much. Feelings make humans do such illogical things! Take _love_ , for instance. A few of Venom’s past hosts had a concept like love, but only those who swapped genetic material like humans do. Most hosts were more like the Klyntar, cloning themselves or spreading spores, and their loyalties were to their hive or colony, not to a genetic line. Venom wasn't all that keen on the Klyntar hive, but never felt anything pleasant towards Riot, even though they were kin. Eddie is better than the Klyntar hive ever was, and it would be good to make their new hive bigger with Eddie's offspring. Eddie wants to mate with Annie, _loves_ her enough to want to swap genes and reproduce, and Venom would have helped with that, helping raise the hive's offspring if that's what Eddie wanted. But Eddie won't try to win Annie back, just like Rufus wouldn’t try to win back Kimberley on _Virtue Falls_. Mariana said men like Rufus and Eddie are often stupid about love, and Venom agrees.

Eddie hadn’t appreciated the comparison when Venom pointed it out.

Venom thought they had figured out Eddie's feelings, but now they are confused. They are not Eddie’s kin. They are not Eddie’s mate. Eddie cannot have offspring with them. There is no reason for Eddie to _love them_ , even in the strange made-up world of a dream.

They look at Eddie now -- drooling a little as his eyes jerk behind the lids. So alien and strange. With his dreams and his crankiness and the all the odd human rules he fusses about, and the little snuffling noises he makes as he sleeps.

The hungry/spinning sensation surges up inside them again, and they itch to move, to _do something_. But they don’t try to crawl out of the bed again, because Eddie still has them snug against his chest, not letting go even with the laxness of sleep. Instead, they curl their face up into the warm, hormone-rich hollow of Eddie’s armpit until the feeling goes away.

After a while the people in the apartment above stop making the exercising noises and go quiet, and Venom drifts into their usual nightly torpor.

~

Venom is not good at patience, but has learned that Eddie is better at explaining things when he’s feeling good. So they wait until he’s rolled out of bed and urinated, and wait some more until he’s scratched himself and stood blankly in the kitchen staring into the fridge. They impatiently eat a raw egg or two when Eddie shoves the carton at them, and wait _some more_ until he’s drunk most of a cup of coffee and eaten the first two bites of toast.

Finally, Eddie starts to look more alert, and his blood sugar is steadily rising. “Are you feeling alright, buddy?” he asks, pushing the carton of eggs closer to them across the table. “You haven’t eaten as much as usual.”

 **_You dream talked last night!_** The words burst out a bit more accusatory than they intended, spraying some eggshell onto the table.

Eddie amiably picks a bit of shell out of his coffee and takes another slurp. “Chocolate fruit again?”

**_No. You said you love me!_ **

“I did, huh?”

**_And you kissed me!_ **

“Pretty ballsy of me.” Eddie puts down his coffee, and reaches out, patting the tendril stretched between them. The soup of good hormones in his bloodstream has risen a bit, and his thoughts are smooth and content as he pets them. “You seem upset about it.”

**_Not upset._ **

Eddie looks sceptical. “If you say so.”

Venom glares at Eddie, but Eddie just takes a bite of toast and chews it. Loudly.

 **_Did you dream about Annie?_ **they demand.

“I don’t remember, but I doubt it.” Eddie’s cheeks flush red and his heartbeat elevates a bit; Venom does a quick check, but he doesn’t seem to have a temperature. It's probably just one of his weird human emotions. Or maybe his coffee is still too hot. Eddie burns his tongue on it most mornings. “Actually,” Eddie bites his bottom lip, hesitant, before admitting, “I’m pretty sure I was talking to you, buddy. About the love thing.”

The hungry/spinning sensation roars through them again. They surreptitiously curl a tendril around Eddie’s knee as an anchor; Eddie doesn’t seem to notice, just smiles down at his toast, his heartbeat speeding up a bit more.

 **_But..._** They are confused. Human feelings are so confusing.  _ **How can you love me? I’m**_ **_not your kin or your mate._ **

Eddie frowns at them. “What’s that got to do with it?”

**_Mariana says --_ **

Eddie slaps a hand over his face. “Oh my god!”

**_\-- that love is for family!_ **

“You have got to stop watching that soap. It’ll rot your brain.”

**_And Google says family are mates and kin. I checked!_ **

“Oh, well, if _Google_ and _Mariana_ both say,” Eddie mutters from between his fingers.

 ** _I’m not your mate or kin, so you can't_ _love me_** ** _._**   _ **And Klyntar don't have those kinds of kinship bonds,**_ they finish triumphantly.

"That's what you're going with?" Eddie stares at them, the flush of blood in his cheeks getting more intense and splotchy, but another check shows his temperature still within normal bounds. "I can't love you, and you don't have emotions."

Venom nods.  ** _It must have been a made-up dream like the chocolate fruit._**

Eddie jerks up onto his feet, dislodging the anchoring tendril Venom has wrapped around his knee and nearly knocking his chair over. He flings both arms out, a glob of peanut butter flying off his half-eaten toast and splatting against the fridge. “I guess I must be wrong about my stupid feelings, then! Is that what you want to hear?”

Even though this is an entirely logical answer, Venom finds they are not pleased with it, or with the way Eddie is glaring at them, all his morning softness gone, and his eyes shiny with excess liquid (but still no fever). 

 ** _Not the first time you've been wrong,_** they reply meanly. **_Like a loser._** It's not their fault Eddie makes things up in his dreams.

Eddie nods. “Yep, definitely not feeling the love right now.” He stalks over to the bathroom, taking his final bit of toast with him, and chocks the door closed; not actively squashing the tendril tying them together, but very clearly uninviting them from joining him in the shower.

Unhappy with this state of affairs, Venom goes and nests in the closet, tucking themself down inside the dirty clothes hamper. It’s nice and dark, and smells of Eddie in there, and it’s almost like curling up inside his body.

~

The usual just-woken thumping and cursing comes from Eddie as he dresses for the day, which Venom pointedly ignores. Eventually, he finishes tying his shoes and checking his pockets for his phone, keys and note book, and comes to lean over the laundry hamper. Tugging on their tendril, he says, “Come on. We gotta go to work.”

They stare up at him from beneath a dirty hoody and a pair of socks, considering the merits of refusing. Eddie doesn’t try to haul them out by force, but he doesn’t look ready to make up yet either.

“It’s not optional,” Eddie says. “You know I promised to cover this gig as a favour for all the chocolate Liz gave us that time.”

Venom grudgingly concedes and absorbs into Eddie’s thigh. One of the nicer oddities of humans is that you can make a deal with them and they actually follow through. Liz’s chocolate stash had been the only bright spot after a day of constant noise from the construction crew working on the floor above the newsroom, and she’s likely to share it again if they don’t piss her off. 

They set off in silence, Eddie’s attention on the rush-hour traffic. Venom usually spends trips like these heckling Eddie’s biking skills and occasionally taking over, but this time they ignore him and observe all the two-legged snacks hurrying along the sidewalks.

A small child cries over a dropped ice-cream as their mother fusses over them; a bird is pecking up the remains off the concrete. A red-faced man shouts at a boy holding a skateboard, one wheel still lazily spinning, and Venom imagines the phantom pop of the man’s head as he bites it off. A golden dog in a harness is shepherding a woman through the bustle; it slows and turns to look at them, maybe sensing Venom’s presence, and the woman brushes its fur with the tips of her fingers, saying, “Steady, girl, that’s it,” as the dog turns back to its task. A new ad for a movie is plastered on the side of a building, showing an alien that looks like a tree -- _absurd!_ \-- and they nearly start to complain to Eddie about it before they remember.

When they stop for a traffic light, a man with long, stringy hair and dirty clothes is shouting: “‘ _Love_ the Lord your God with all your _heart_ and with all your _soul_ and with all your _mind_.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your _neighbour_ as yourself.’”

“God clearly hasn’t been listening to the great and powerful Word of Google,” Eddie mutters, revving the engine as the light changes to green and they leave the stringy man behind. "Or he'd know loving yourself is a bum deal."

 ** _And our neighbour smells bad,_ **they point out.  ** _We don't like him._**

Eddie coughs, and they can tell that he’s trying not to laugh, and they suddenly feel a lot better about the day.

There's an empty parking space right outside the Lufu Gallery when they arrive. Eddie lingers in the parking lot after pocketing the bike's keys. “You’re not going to --”

**_We can fight some more when we get home._ **

“Fair enough,” Eddie says.

Inside, the gallery smells faintly of paint and astringent cleaning fluids and more strongly of -- **_Food!_ **

“Mmmhmm,” Eddie murmurs, as he raises a hand in greeting and moves toward a woman dressed in a sharp red suit near the front counter.

“Mr Brock!” says the woman. She has an angular haircut and shiny polygon earrings. "I'm glad you could make it." She offers her hand, which Eddie shakes. “I'm Vida Lufu. I was surprised when Liz said to expect you. I didn’t think this was your beat.”

“It's true I'm not much for art,” Eddie confesses. He smiles in a way he only ever uses for work, and the woman's smile turns more genuine in response. “But helping the homeless is definitely part of my beat.” 

"Well, I'm hoping you can help us with that." Vida's earrings sparkle like a lure as she leans in to tell Eddie something about an upcoming auction, but Venom stops paying attention because there is a man with a tray full of food. It smells deliciously of chocolate. Venom wraps themself around Eddie’s wrist, in amongst his bracelets, and waits for their moment, vibrating a little with anticipation. They’ve been to enough of these kinds of events that they have a routine.

When the man stops in front of them and holds out the tray, Eddie slowly takes one of the small cakes, while continuing to talk and gesture with his other hand. Meanwhile, Venom sneakily swallows the three cakes directly beneath Eddie’s wrist, before taking cover amongst his bracelets again. No-one notices a thing.

They repeat the routine a few more times while Vida walks them around the gallery, telling Eddie all about how much good the money raised by the art show and auction will do for homeless people. Eddie takes notes and smiles enough at her to make her start pumping out pheromones.

Venom withstands it for as long as they can, but when she rests her fingers on Eddie's sleeve, they snap out,  ** _She stinks! I don’t like her._ **

"I hear you," Eddie says, and the woman thinks he's talking to her and smiles, but Venom knows better. Eddie flips his notebook closed. “How about you introduce me to one of the artists? Someone who's received one of your fellowships and can tell me how much it's changed their life.”

Vida's smile shifts to something more professional, and she lets go of his arm. She takes them over to a woman with black, coiling hair just beginning to streak with grey.

"Rosa!" Vida announces. "This is the reporter I mentioned. Eddie Brock."

The artist wheels her chair around deftly and holds out her hand. When Eddie takes it, she traps his hand between both of hers. Her nails are stained with multicoloured flecks of paint. "Mr Brock," Rosa says. "It's a real pleasure."

"Likewise," Eddie says, not trying to pull away from her.

Without looking away from Eddie, Rosa says, "We don't need you, Vida. I'll take good care of Mr Brock."

Venom doesn't really understand whatever power play is taking place, but Eddie is amused, and Vida looks put out.

After a reminder to Eddie that he should find her before he leaves, Vida briskly walks away, going to greet someone else who came into the gallery a few minutes ago and is lingering by the counter.

As soon as she's gone, Rosa lets go of Eddie's hand. “Before she comes back, I need to tell you something."

Eddie perks up, like a hunter spotting prey. "I'm all ears, Rosa."

She gazes up at him intently. "I think you're a good man."

Discomfort echoes through Eddie's body, but he hides it, saying, "I try to be."

Without warning, Rosa's eyes fill with water and overflow, streaking down her cheeks. She ignores it, but her paint-specked fingers twist together. Whisper-soft she says, "My Will was taken by the Life Foundation.” 

Eddie’s heart rate speeds up. " _What?_ "

Seeking comfort, Venom curls tendrils around his chest. They dread what Rosa might be about to say.

Rosa leans toward them. "They killed him. Doing those experiments you exposed. I saw that video you took of the cells."

“God,” Eddie says. "I'm sorry. I didn't--"

“I'm _glad_ I saw it! He was the love of my life!" Rosa swipes at her face, wiping the wetness off on her shirt. "We didn’t have anybody else on the street except each other, and I loved him so much. He was a comfort to me. When life was hard, he was always a comfort. That's why he went, you know? To get money for medicine for me.” Her expression turns fierce when she goes on. “You did a good thing, taking that man down, and I’m grateful to you, Mr Brock, and I know my Will would have been too. He would have been grateful that you made sure people found out what that man had done. I know it cost you a lot, so I’m glad I finally had this chance to tell you to your face that it was a _good_ thing you did, and it _mattered_. It mattered to _me._ ”

Venom shrinks up inside Eddie, small and tight, keeping just one tendril wrapped around him as an anchor. They remember a man Scream tried to bond. Drake's technicians called him William. He lasted longer than most.

Swallowing, Eddie husks out, “... I ... _thank_ you... Rosa...”

“Oh hush, put that sad face away or you’ll make me bawl more than I already am, and today’s not for crying. I just had to say it while I had the chance. But you’re here to talk about my art. I found my art when I lost Will. That's the one good thing that came out of this.”

Eddie rests his hand against the tendril wrapped around his chest. "One good thing came out of it for me too." 

 _ **Eddie.**_ They try not to think about their time in Drake's cage, but they will never forget the surge of hormones that flooded Maria's body when they saw Eddie standing on the other side of the glass. The relief and hope she felt, the hungry/spinning sensation that overwhelmed them and made them ache to go to him. The way their focus narrowed to only two things -- getting out, and touching Eddie. It was the worst thing that ever happened to them, and it was the best thing that ever happened to them. They don't know how to explain it so that Eddie will understand.  _ **Eddie.**_

"Good." Rosa wiped beneath her eyes again. "You should ask me a question."

Eddie takes a couple of deep breaths, swallowing down the surge of feeling. He waves at the painting next to them, an enormous thing that takes up most of the wall. “So tell me about this.” His voice is only a little shaky.

Rosa turns so they are viewing it side by side. “My grandest folly," she says, but with a little smile that says she doesn't really think so. "What do you see?”

Venom looks, but mostly just sees a blur of colour -- a blobby woman holding a blobby thing surrounded by more blobs.

Eddie says, “It’s a story.” He points. “Half the closet is empty, and the bookcase too. There’s a place on the wall where there used to be a picture. There's a wedding ring next to the vase of dead flowers.”

Now that Eddie has said it, Venom can see it. The painting shows the pieces of a home as though they are all on one plane, pulling the eye to empty places and missing things. There’s one dirty cup on the sink, and broken pieces of a matching cup in the trash. Out the window, there’s the back of a man mid-stride, holding a suitcase. He’s small with distance, but more sharply defined than the blobby woman, as though he took all the painting's perspective with him when he left. The thing the woman is holding is the same colour as the man’s back. It has sleeves, and it’s bigger than she is, the hem dragging on the ground. A coat, maybe.

"When someone leaves," Eddie says, “everything reminds you.”

Venom remembers Eddie's sadness over Annie, how he'd linger over her ring sometimes, and realises that the blobby woman is pressing the man's coat to her nose, taking in his lingering scent. They remember how it felt when Eddie shut them out of the bathroom this morning, and how comforting it was curling up in the clothes hamper surrounded by Eddie’s smell.

Rosa says, “I used to think missing him so much was a weakness.”

They remember at the hospital when Eddie said he was done with them, and they thought Drake’s men might kill him before they could fix things. The pang like hunger that shot through them at the thought of never being with Eddie again hadn't made them weak. It had made them determined. It had made them strong enough to defeat Riot.

“Love isn't a weakness,” Eddie says now, as though hearing Venom's thoughts.

Rosa nods and reaches out, gently touching the blobby woman’s curly black hair. “Auden got it right, didn't he. 'We must love one another or die.'”

Venom watches the little painted man walking away from them -- impossible to call back or stop -- and that's when they understand.

~

Eddie doesn’t take them straight home afterwards. He drives them across the bridge to the Headlands, stopping the bike where they can look out over the bay and the city, surrounded only by the sound of the wind and the waves below. He breaks out a chocolate bar, and Venom extrudes when he offers them a piece, taking it gently from his fingers.

Gulls wheel overhead as they eat. The sun is shining. Dolphins are playing in the water.

They are glad they saved this world.

Wanting their argument resolved so they can be comfortable again, Venom says, **_The Klyntar have stories about symbiosis. I used to try to get the Old Ones to tell them. They all ended badly, with the Host rejecting the symbiote or enslaving them, but I always listened hoping for a different ending._** Admitting it felt like being without a host; exposed to any potential harshness that might come their way. _**Do you understand what true symbiosis is, Eddie?**_

"A partnership?" Eddie says. "Like moss and stuff --

 ** _Moss!_** they say, outraged.

"Whatever, you know what I mean. I do stuff for you, like breathing, and you do stuff for me like eat me out of house and home and create social embarrassment in public places."

**_I heal you and protect you!_ **

"Yeah, that's true actually, not gonna lie. Sometimes it's even from stuff you didn't cause in the first place."

**_Ungrateful!_ **

A particularly brave seagull hops closer and closer to Eddie's feet. He makes no move to scare it off, and Venom chooses to let it live.

Eddie's mood turns serious as he watches the bird peck and retreat, a little braver each time. “My dad blamed me for my mom's death. He said I'd never turn out any good, always taking like a leech. It feels like a lifetime ago now, but it made it hard for me to love anyone for a long time. I was afraid I would turn out the same way. Lashing out. Being cruel instead of kind. I wonder sometimes if I ruined it with Annie because I was still afraid of turning into him.”

Venom licks the last hint of chocolate from Eddie’s fingers. **_I_** ** _don't have a dead mother._**

Eddie cracks out a harsh laugh.

Extruding out further so they can look at Eddie's face, they say,  ** _I want to make a different story with you. Better than your dad's, and better than the Old Ones'._**

"I think maybe the stories you and I want have incompatible plots." Eddie's blood tastes sad, like it does when he thinks of how it ended with Annie. He strokes the dome of their head, trailing his fingers down to the curve of their mouth. 

Venom likes the way Eddie touches them. It's like he's trying to pass chemosignals even without the proper receptors. _**We both want the same story. You're just being a pussy.**_ They ease forward and gently press a kiss to the side of Eddie's face. It's a strange sensation -- a bite, but not. Eddie leans into it, wrapping his arms around them; his human warmth feels good. **_We are a good match, Eddie. You can call it love if you want to. I'm starting to like it._**

"I can't believe I'm winning this fight," Eddie sighs. "You're such an asshole."

**_We wouldn't even be having this fight if you explained things better. Google says--_ **

"Oh god." 

**_\--that cocoa beans grow on trees. And that means--_ **

"Oh  _my god_ _."_

**_\--chocolate is a fruit! A fruit, Eddie! There really is a chocolate fruit!_ **

Eddie looks at them fondly. "Yes, there is, love. I can't believe it took you so long to figure that out."


	2. Additional Attachments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venom gets a clue.
> 
> Please note the changed rating -- this chapter is explicit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I got Airhart's Choc Box prompts, I had this really weird blank. I went and read the Venom comics they liked, and thought about the Klyntar's backstory, and why Venom might be considered a loser, and it was all interesting and enjoyable, and yet none of it triggered a story idea. 
> 
> Finally, as the deadline got near and I had to decide whether to default or not, I started thinking about a) what it's like to share a body, b) love, because this was, after all, a fic for Valentine's Day.
> 
> This combination ended up sparking a research binge on aesthetics, of all things, because I asked myself, "What drives love?" and of course, from a biological perspective, it's Darwinian. Natural selection. Mammals have preferences, so the theory goes, because we have to choose a mate. It all flows from there. We need to be able to pick, and so we pick the mate with the biggest tail, best beard, best nest, or whatever. And in humans, that gets transferred to things like art. Even though aesthetic preferences for the arts have nothing directly to do with mating, the ability to have them comes from that drive. At least according to Darwinian theory. 
> 
> But what happens if you have a being who isn't driven by sexual selection? Like, for instance, a non-sexual alien. What drives them instead? And how might that affect their ability to have preferences and the flow-on effects like an aesthetic sense? 
> 
> This story grew out of those questions. I'm not 100% satisfied that I nailed it, as it was a difficult story to write -- one of those stories you just slog through and try to make decent in re-writes. But I really like the premise, and I really like the potential of an aesthetic sense for Venom built on a symbiote's desire to find a bondmate rather than a reproductive mate. It's just plain cool to think about.
> 
> Maybe I'll revisit this concept someday, because I do have more ideas for this 'verse. For now, I've just finished off the second part of the story that I didn't have time to finish before the Choc Box deadline.

They stop at the market on the way home, and Eddie buys three live crabs. They’re fat and juicy-looking, and Venom can’t wait to eat them.

“One of them is for me,” Eddie says, pointedly.

Venom _supposes_ they can share, as it will make Eddie’s blood thrum with happy hormones.

As they bike home, Venom pretends to be the bungee cord that’s keeping the crabs in place in their cardboard box on the back. The streets aren't very busy, as it's the lull just before school lets out, and so its easy to spot the colourful palette in a Blick store's sign as they go by.

**_Eddie! I want paint!_ **

Eddie laughs in that way he does when he’s delighted with them, and slows down to pull into a nearby parking space. “Okay, Vincent. Let’s fix you up.”

They take the crab box into the store with them, the crabs making clicking and popping noises. The assistant who turns up to help them raises a studded eyebrow at the box, but Eddie says, “It wouldn’t be much of a romantic dinner, if dinner was pinched off my bike while I was buying the gift.” The clerk shrugs as though that’s fair enough and asks what kind of paint they’re looking for.

“Finger paint,” Eddie says.

 **_Don’t have fingers,_ **Venom points out, but Eddie just adds, “Preferably safe to eat.”

Eddie knows them so well.

“How old is your kid?” Eyebrow Stud asks, as they move towards a shelf with pictures of children with paint-covered fingers.

“Ah,” Eddie says. “It’s a gift for an adult that can’t hold brushes very well, actually.”

The assistant looks sheepish. “Sorry. That’ll teach me to make assumptions, won’t it.” Rallying quickly, the clerk leads them over to one particular display and points out a couple of different boxes. “You’ll want a brand with bigger paint tubs if it’s for an adult's hand, and this brand is on special. They come in six or twelve colours.”

Venom admires the bright colours in the bigger set, and Eddie doesn’t need any more convincing. He also picks up a pad of art paper that fits neatly over the top of their crab box, and manages to pay for it all right before a group of children in school uniforms swarm into the store and fill the aisles with happy chatter.

The rest of their trip is uneventful, and once they get home, Eddie sets Venom up at the kitchen table with the unpackaged paint pots, pad of paper open to the first page, a jar of water, and old teatowel. Eddie sits down opposite with his laptop and gets out his notes from the gallery. Venom can feel him glance over, taking in the way Venom is touching everything, getting a feel for it. Without offering any advice, Eddie starts to work, leaving Venom to figure out the paint for themself.

The paper is very white and has a slightly rough texture when they stroke it. Venom picks up the blue paint pot. They expect to need to borrow Eddie’s hand to open it, but the lid pops right off with just their tentacle. The paint is a bright sky blue and reminds them of Eddie’s eyes. It smells of plastic and a little bit like vegetables -- corn, maybe, or rice. When they dip in a tendril, it tastes like plastic and vegetables too, as well as faintly of crushed beetles.

Venom considers the blank paper in front of them, not knowing where to start. They think back to the blobby painted woman that Rosa had made. It didn’t really look like a person. It was more like… looking at the painting made Venom expect to see a person. It had person-things, like hair and a house and feelings (her nose searching for the scent in the coat) and that was enough to make Venom _see_ a person.

They look over at Eddie, who’s squinting at the screen of his laptop. Eddie has things that make him Eddie. He squeezes his hands closed when he’s upset, and his laugh shakes his whole body when he’s really happy, and he has weird dreams and talks in his sleep. His liver tastes good. His eyes are different when he looks at Venom than when he looks at other things. He's good at noticing details and figuring out stories. His insides are warm.

Venom remembers the expression in Eddie's eyes when he looked at them on the Headlands, right before they kissed him. Near the top of the page Venom swirls their paint-covered tendril in a circle, spreading the blue around in a coil. It’s bright against the page. Pretty. But not quite as intense as Eddie is when he looks at Venom in that particular way. They glance at Eddie, who is trailing one finger along his notepad, brow furrowed, and then add some more blue until they’re satisfied with the depth of colour.

Next they reach for the red. Eddie’s inside are red, and that is their favourite place to be in the world. The steady beat of Eddie's heart is their favourite sound. They stroke long red stripes radiating out from a fist-sized heart in the middle of the page.

They’re trying to decide what to tackle next -- Eddie’s clever hands and the way he touches them, or the winding tracks of their own black tendrils through Eddie’s body -- when the people upstairs start exercising again. 

The stereo goes on first, not all that loud, but with a low, deep beat that reverberates down through the walls and signals that they are going to start moving around. There’s some laughter, the sound of two sets of footsteps speeding towards the bedroom. Then bedsprings protest a sudden weight.

Eddie glares up at the ceiling. His cheeks are flushing a rosy red.

The woman upstairs says something too quiet to understand over the music, but then shrieks, "Oh, _Haruto!"_ and her partner -- presumably Haruto -- lets out a growl.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie mutters.

 **_What are they doing?_ ** Venom asks, keen to finally solve the mystery.

Eddie’s eyes go wide as he looks at them. “Uh…”

The woman wails, “ _Yes! Yes!_ ” and something starts banging rhythmically into the wall.

**_You never exercise that hard._ **

Eddie chokes out a laugh. “They’re not exercising, love.” He swipes a hand over his face which is bright red now, and Venom realises he’s embarrassed, his blood fizzing with it. “They’re having sex.”

Venom considers this new information, and quickly concludes, **_They must be doing it wrong._** **_They have been trying to breed for weeks and still have no offspring._**

"They probably aren’t trying to get pregnant." Eddie flaps a hand, as though trying to wave the whole topic off. “Humans often just have sex for fun. It’s a thing.”

Venom’s focus zooms in on Eddie, because this is _entirely new information about humans_. **_You don’t have sex for fun._ **

Eddie’s expression slides to _oh shit,_ and Venom realises they have stumbled onto something important.

Snapping his laptop closed, Eddie springs out of his chair and lurches over to the sink; Venom has to flex quickly so as not to be pulled along in his wake. Grabbing a glass, Eddie clumsily pours himself some water and gulps it down. Then he stands there, staring at the out-of-date Space Cats calendar hanging on the wall and clutching the empty glass. “We literally just finished round one of this fucking argument. Can’t we just… take a raincheck on part two.”

 **_No!_**  Unacceptable. Venom spent all day coming to terms with the idea of _love_ and that they actually like feeling Eddie’s human affections via their bond. Now Venom wants to know everything about Eddie's feelings, and everything about _love_ that Google and _Virtue Falls_ failed to tell them.

Eddie turns around and faces them, leaning back against the sink. His hands are shaking. “You haven’t shown any interest in sex before.”

**_I'm showing interest now._ **

A delicious flush of hormones rushes through Eddie’s blood. It tastes like happiness, but brighter.

“God.” Eddie comes back over to the table, stumbling a bit over his own feet, almost as though Venom’s tether has reeled him in. “It really wouldn’t take much to get my motor revving, fair warning. It’s been a while.” Eddie hesitates, glancing over at the unmade bed. “I could… I dunno if that’s something you’d even… but you’ve liked everything else we’ve...” He swallows. “You could. Watch me, maybe? See if you like it?”

It takes a moment for Venom to understand that Eddie is offering to show them a human sex act.  ** _Watch you have sex?_** they ask, just to be sure.

Another surge of those bright hormones as Eddie nods. "Yeah. Yep." His heart rate is elevated, and he's starting to sweat.

**_Are you going to call Annie?_ **

“What? No! Just me. Well, and you, if you wanna watch." Eddie presses a hand to the front of his pants, and another jolt of good feeling washes through him. "But solo, you know. No, of course you don’t know, but it’s a thing humans do. On their own. Usually.” Eddie licks his lips. “You game? I’m game if you are.”

Venom is a quick learner, and the lesson from this morning’s argument is still fresh in their mind. This time, they don’t shut Eddie down. Watching him perform a human sex act has to be at least as interesting as watching him pick his nose or piss or any of the other odd things he does. And those hormone surges have made them curious to see what Eddie's sex is like. **_Okay._ **

This time the surge of delicious hormones is so swift and strong it makes their tendrils twitch.

“Right,” Eddie says, looking nervous, but his eyes are shining and he looks excited too. He holds out his hand. “It’s easier on the bed.”

As soon as Venom has re-absorbed into Eddie’s body, Eddie starts throwing off his clothes. By the time they reach the bed he’s shucked his hoody and t-shirt and is hopping on one foot, trying to pull off his left shoe. He finally gets it off and flings it aside, then pushes off his pants and kicks off the other shoe all in one move. He throws himself backward onto the bed and wriggles his way to the middle. The good hormones are coming in steady surges now, and Venom is starting to wonder why they have never done this before.

Then Eddie curls his hand around his bare dick. “ _Ahhh!_ ” he cries, and Venom’s tendrils shoot out, anchoring them both to the bed.

The spinning/hungry feeling is intense -- bigger than falling off a building or even the Life Foundation rocket -- it’s like they’re about to tip over the edge of the world and freefall all the way down, and it only gets more intense with every stroke of Eddie’s hand.

**_Eddie! I like this!_ **

“Oh, Jesus,” Eddie moans, “this is going to be fast.” His hand moves again, and again, speeding up, and the feeling is so energising that Venom pops a head out of Eddie’s torso so they can see better. Eddie’s dick is plump with blood and glistening with fluid, and when he strokes it, his whole body reacts, pumping out hormones and sweat and pheromones.

Venom has never felt anything like it.

Eddie husks out, “Are you _looking?_ ” His hand stills, gripping tight.

Venom is dismayed. **_No! Faster!_ **

“Tell me what you see?” Eddie insists. His heart is racing in his chest, and he is ravenously hungry, but in a different way than for food.

 ** _I see you._** Venom wants the hungry feeling to stop, but doesn't know how to sate it. They seep out of the skin of Eddie’s hand until its coated, the black of them a stark contrast to the desperate red of Eddie’s dick. **_We are beautiful, Eddie. Look._**

“Oh, _fuck!_ ” Eddie jerks their shared hand against his hungry dick, the slip-slide of them together making the emptiness worse and better at the same time, a messy swirl of you-me-us as the feeling grows, expanding to fill them to the very edges of each tendril, until Eddie squeezes just-so and finally, finally brings them crashing together, Eddie's dick spurting forth salty wetness that Venom catches on their tongue.

They both let go of Eddie's dick with a whimper, and Eddie turns on his side and curls around Venom, basking in the feelings they've made.

Venom lolls in Eddie's arms, hunger sated. Everything is wonderful. 

“Wow,” Eddie says, his voice strained, like he’s been shouting for hours.

 ** _Outstanding!_** Venom agrees. In fact...  ** _My entire species are losers_**. 

“‘Cept for you,” Eddie says. “You’re awesome.”

 **_We’re both superior examples of our kind,_ **Venom concedes, inching up towards Eddie’s mouth. They want to give this kissing thing another try.

“Love you,” Eddie mumbles as he welcomes them in.

His tongue against theirs feels like the friendly touch of another symbiote, and at the same time nothing like that at all. It's better. Happy and sweet and satisfying. They like kissing Eddie.

Eddie is the best.

~

Later, while Eddie is cooking his crab, Venom nervously gives him the painting.

 **_It’s you,_** they tell him.

Eddie takes it and looks at it carefully -- the swirls of blue and red all streaked through with black. He looks at it the same way he looked at Rosa's painting.

"I love it, darling." He smiles and his eyes have the happy look, as though he understands the hungry/spinning feeling Venom doesn't have words for but tried to say with the paint. "I know the perfect place for this." 

Ignoring the boiling pot, Eddie walks over to the fridge and puts the picture right in the middle, sticking it there with the big, fluffy, _Pussy Magnet_ that they bought together at the market last week.

"There," he says. "Perfect."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's also some meta I wrote on this premise if you're interested: [Meta - Aesthetics and Venom](https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/447500.html)


End file.
